Dan Wolman is one of Israeli cinema’s most prolific filmmakers. Wolman has directed both fiction and documentary films for television and film that were subsequently shown at festivals in Israel and around the world, winning multiple awards. Wolman’s debut film, The Dreamer (1970) was a Palme d’Or nominee at the Cannes Film Festival and is considered one of the films that are most representative of the New Sensitivity movement. Over the years, Wolman became an indie filmmaker of sorts: his low-budget films boasted a unique voice, whilst steering clear of the period’s then-hot topics.
Alongside those more personal pieces, Wolman also directed a string of commercial releases for Cannon Films, including Baby Love (1983, the fifth instalment in the Lemon Popsicle film franchise) and Up your Anchor (1985, part VI). Highlights of his other films include Floch (1972, screenplay by Wolman and Hanoch Levin) which was part of the Venice International Film Festival’s official selection, My Michael (1975), Hide and Seek (1980), Night Soldier (1984), Foreign Sister (2000) which won him a Wolgin Prize in the Best Film Category at the Jerusalem Film Festival, Ben’s Biography (2003), Valley of Strength (2010), and An Israeli Love Story (2017).
Wolman also writes and directs for theatre and has helmed a number of TV dramas, in addition to his cinematic body of work. In 1999, the Jerusalem Film Festival named Wolman the recipient of that year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Then, in 2016, he received yet another Lifetime Achievement Award at that year’s Ophir Awards ceremony.
